Tuesday I accompanied my mother to yet another disability hearing, my mother having been disabled for the last 8 years. Unfortunately, the state of Ohio has not necessarily agreed with her and her doctors in that matter, so a very protracted battle has taken place for quite a while. As I sat in the hearing room in Portsmouth, listening to the droning of legal jargon of lawyers, interjecting my own views when called upon, I was struck by the difficulty to keep my mouth shut. Yes, I am a preacher, and trying to keep a preacher's mouth shut is like trying to keep his hands out of a bucket of chicken. Still, I knew it would not be conducive to my mother's case to start incessantly rattling off.
One thing I did notice was the overwhelming desire to do physical harm to the lawyer on the opposition side, the advocate for the state who says that my mother is not disabled in the least (anyone who knows mom knows that is most certainly not the case). "Don't do something to get you in jail," I kept repeating to myself, struggling to keep in check my desire to wipe the expression off of this man's face, or to suddenly and rapidly accelerate my foot into the gentleman's posterior region. I knew this man had never seen my mother, knew nothing about her, and was just doing his job. But when someone's talking about your "mama," it gets a shade more difficult.
The hearing over, I came home and began the finishing touches to the next evening's Bible study. I did not notice it at the time, but a devotional for that day had the following verse: Proverbs 27:17 – Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (NASB) As I sat in the hearing room, I couldn't help but think that the opposition lawyer was, simply by speaking, chipping away at me like a hammer; more specifically, he was like what my grandfather would call a "cleaning hammer," one which has a flat, chisel-like end used to chip the mortar off of old bricks. I could have easily stood up and verbally (and yes, perhaps physically) defended my mother, but something kept me in check. As I read this verse, I realized what that something was.
This verse speaks of how friends are there to keep you sharp, to peck away at those rough places in your life, to give you constructive criticism when you need it and the encouragement to change it when you need to. This is what the Christian friends around me have done simply by being there for me, and it is what the Lord does for me daily. As a pastor I have occasionally had to provide some unwelcome and difficult advice, things which were both hard to hear and hard to say; but the advice was needed and it was right. Now don't think that I'm some perfectly holy specimen sitting on a high horse above my ivory tower. Many times I have been the recipient of the same kind of advice. I didn't like it. It didn't feel good, and there were times I would have liked nothing better than to write down these sage words of wisdom and carefully shove them back down the throat from whence they came. But the advice made me better.
Sometimes God has to do a lot of chipping, and He does that through our study time and prayer with Him, or through sermons or songs, or through our brothers and sisters. Sometimes the advice is Biblically sound and should be heeded. At other times it is merely an uninformed human opinion which should be avoided at all costs. But whenever advice is given, my policy has always been to check the Scriptures. If it conforms to God's Word, then it's sound advice. If it does not, then I thank the individual who gives it and respectfully decline to use it. But even during those times when poor advice is offered (or in some cases followed) there is something to learn. Each situation in life can bring you closer to the Lord if you will approach it that way. Positive and negative, joyous or painful, each moment, each circumstance is designed to enlighten us in this journey of life. What we do with that enlightenment is entirely up to us. We can choose to draw close to the Lord in those times, or we can choose to run away. But take my advice: only one of those choices is the right one, and it's the right one every time.
So the next time someone or something is weighing you down, and you feel that you can't take another step, I encourage you to look up. See the situation as a way that God will bring you closer to Him and as a means of opening your mind and heart to things you never thought possible. The Bible never says you have to like every trial that comes your way, but you can learn from them. And don't be afraid to open yourself up to Christian guidance (through pastors, friends, family, study resources, blogs such as this, and other ways). Not only will you be sharpened, but through the exchange you will be able to help sharpen others, too!
Just try to avoid the temptation to use your new-found sharpness to inflict an injury!
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